Reba Bandyopadhyay

Last updated
Reba Bandyopadhyay
Born1972
Education
Scientific career
Fields
Thesis Infrared observations of X-ray binaries  (1998)
Doctoral advisor Phil Charles

Reba Mithua Bandyopadhyay (born 1972) [1] is an American science policy analyst. Formerly a professional astronomer, she works as deputy executive director of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in the US Office of Science and Technology Policy, [2] and as legislative and science policy analyst for the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation. [3]

Contents

Astronomy

As an astronomer, Bandyopadhyay specialized in observations of the Galactic Center and of star systems containing neutron stars and black holes. [4] She has also participated in studies of 2060 Chiron, a Solar System object combining the characteristics of comets and asteroids. [5]

Bandyopadhyay graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993. [5] She completed a D.Phil. in 1998 at the University of Oxford in England, with the dissertation Infrared observations of X-ray binaries supervised by Phil Charles. [6] After postdoctoral research at the Naval Research Laboratory, she worked for the Gemini Observatory from 2001 to 2004, at the observatory's Oxford office. She then became a research scientist at the University of Florida. [7]

Science policy

From 2014 to 2015 Bandyopadhyay was a science advisor in the United States Senate, advising Brian Schatz as an American Physical Society Congressional Fellow, [2] [8] and from 2015 to 2017 she worked for the National Science Board as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Science & Technology Policy Executive Branch Fellow, [2] [4] before taking her present positions as deputy executive director of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in the US Office of Science and Technology Policy, [2] and as legislative and science policy analyst for the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation. [3]

Recognition

Bandyopadhyay was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2021, in the AAAS Section on Astronomy. [9] She was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2023, after a nomination from the APS Forum on Physics and Society, "for outstanding contributions to the nation through informing, crafting, and advancing innovative, inclusive, and data-driven science and technology policy". [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Association for the Advancement of Science</span> International nonprofit organization

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity. AAAS was the first permanent organization established to promote science and engineering nationally and to represent the interests of American researchers from across all scientific fields. It is the world's largest general scientific society, with over 120,000 members, and is the publisher of the well-known scientific journal Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Burbidge</span> British-born American astrophysicist

Eleanor Margaret Burbidge, FRS (née Peachey; 12 August 1919 – 5 April 2020) was a British-American observational astronomer and astrophysicist. In the 1950s, she was one of the founders of stellar nucleosynthesis and was first author of the influential B2FH paper. During the 1960s and 1970s she worked on galaxy rotation curves and quasars, discovering the most distant astronomical object then known. In the 1980s and 1990s she helped develop and utilise the Faint Object Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Burbidge was also well known for her work opposing discrimination against women in astronomy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Mitchell</span> American astronomer (1818–1889)

Maria Mitchell was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI that was later known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet" in her honor. She won a gold medal prize for her discovery, which was presented to her by King Christian VIII of Denmark in 1848. Mitchell was the first internationally known woman to work as both a professional astronomer and a professor of astronomy after accepting a position at Vassar College in 1865. She was also the first woman elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea M. Ghez</span> American astronomer (born 1965)

Andrea Mia Ghez is an American astrophysicist, Nobel laureate, and professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics, at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Wiseman</span> American astronomer

Jennifer J. Wiseman is Senior Project Scientist on the Hubble Space Telescope, and an American astronomer, born in Mountain Home, Arkansas. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics from MIT and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard University in 1995. Wiseman discovered periodic comet 114P/Wiseman-Skiff while working as an undergraduate search assistant in 1987. Wiseman is a senior astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where she serves as the Senior Project Scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope. She previously headed the Laboratory for Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics. She studies star forming regions of our galaxy using radio, optical, and infrared telescopes, with a particular interest in molecular cloud cores, protostars, and outflows. She led a major study that mapped a star forming region in the constellation Orion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heidi Hammel</span> Planetary astronomer

Heidi B. Hammel is a planetary astronomer who has extensively studied Neptune and Uranus. She was part of the team imaging Neptune from Voyager 2 in 1989. She led the team using the Hubble Space Telescope to view Shoemaker-Levy 9's impact with Jupiter in 1994. She has used the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Telescope to study Uranus and Neptune, discovering new information about dark spots, planetary storms and Uranus' rings. In 2002, she was selected as an interdisciplinary scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inez Fung</span> American climatologist (born 1949)

Inez Fung is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of California, Berkeley, jointly appointed in the department of earth and planetary science and the department of environmental science, policy and management. She is also the co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alondra Nelson</span> American sociologist, policy advisor and author (born 1968)

Alondra Nelson is an American academic, policy advisor, non-profit administrator, and writer. She is the Harold F. Linder chair and professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, an independent research center in Princeton, New Jersey. From 2021 to 2023, Nelson was deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and principal deputy director for science and society of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), where she performed the duties of the director from February to October 2022. She was the first African American and first woman of color to lead OSTP. Prior to her role in the Biden Administration, she served for four years as president and CEO of the Social Science Research Council, an independent, nonpartisan international nonprofit organization. Nelson was previously professor of sociology at Columbia University, where she served as the inaugural Dean of Social Science, as well as director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She began her academic career on the faculty of Yale University.

Alvin William Trivelpiece was an American physicist whose varied career included positions as director of the Office of Energy Research of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He was also a professor of physics and a corporate executive. Trivelpiece's research focused on plasma physics, controlled thermonuclear research, and particle accelerators. He received several patents for accelerators and microwave devices. He died in Rancho Santa Margarita, California in August 2022 at the age of 91.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Holdren</span> American scientist and presidential advisor

John Paul Holdren is an American scientist who served as the senior advisor to President Barack Obama on science and technology issues through his roles as assistant to the president for science and technology, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Frebel</span> German astronomer

Anna Frebel is a German astronomer and author working on discovering the oldest stars in the universe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geraldine L. Richmond</span> American scientist (born 1953)

Geraldine Lee Richmond is an American chemist and physical chemist who is serving as the Under Secretary of Energy for Science in the US Department of Energy. Richmond was confirmed to her DOE role by the United States Senate on November 5, 2021. Richmond is the Presidential Chair in Science and professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon (UO). She conducts fundamental research to understand the chemistry and physics of complex surfaces and interfaces. These understandings are most relevant to energy production, atmospheric chemistry and remediation of the environment. Throughout her career she has worked to increase the number and success of women scientists in the U.S. and in many developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America. Richmond has served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and she received the 2013 National Medal of Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vicky Kalogera</span> Greek astrophysicist

Vassiliki Kalogera is a Greek astrophysicist. She is a professor at Northwestern University and the director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). She is a leading member of the LIGO Collaboration that observed gravitational waves in 2015.

Christine D. Wilson is a Canadian-American physicist and astronomer, currently a University Distinguished Professor at McMaster University.

Luz Martinez-Miranda is an American-Puerto Rican physicist. She is currently an associate professor in the College of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Maryland. Martinez-Miranda is an APS Fellow and was the first female president of the National Society of Hispanic Physicists.

Lynn Cominsky is an American astrophysicist and educator. She was the Chair of Astronomy and Physics at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California from August 2004 through August 2019. She is currently the Project Director for the NASA Education and Public Outreach Group.

Risa H. Wechsler is an American cosmological physicist, Professor of Physics at Stanford University, and Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. She is the director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.

Elizabeth J. (Betsy) Beise is a Professor of Physics and Associate Provost at the University of Maryland, College Park. She works on quantum chromodynamics, nucleon structure and fundamental symmetries.

Kate Page Kirby is an American physicist. From February 2015 to December 2020, Kirby was the chief executive officer of the American Physical Society (APS) and sits on the board of directors of the American Institute of Physics. Kate Kirby was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 1989 for her "innovative application of methods of quantum chemistry to the quantitative elucidation of a diverse range of molecular phenomena." She was made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1996 for her contributions to physics.

Natalie Ann Roe is an experimental particle physicist and observational cosmologist, and the Associate Laboratory Director for the Physical Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) since 2020. Previously, she was the Physics Division Director for eight years. She has been awarded as the Fellow of American Physical Society (APS) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for her exceptional scientific career and contributions.

References

  1. Birth year from Library of Congress catalog entry, retrieved 2023-10-29
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Reba Bandyopadhyay, PhD Deputy Executive Director", President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, White House, retrieved 2023-10-29
  3. 1 2 "Reba Bandyopadhyay", Staff directory, National Science Foundation, retrieved 2023-10-29
  4. 1 2 Glorioso, Christin (May 24, 2016), AFS interviewed Dr. Reba Bandyopadhyay, AAAS policy fellow, Academics for the Future of Science, retrieved 2023-10-29
  5. 1 2 Waugh, Alice C. (January 11, 1995), "New data shed light on unusual comet", MIT News, retrieved 2023-10-29
  6. "Reba Mithua Bandyopadhyay", AstroGen, American Astronomical Society, retrieved 2023-10-29
  7. "Bandyopadhyay, Reba M.", Vivo, University of Florida, retrieved 2023-10-29
  8. Johnson, Tawanda W. (September 14, 2023), "As the Congressional Science Fellowship Turns 50, Former Fellows Reflect on Their Experience — and Where They Are Now", APS News, vol. 32, no. 10, American Physical Society, retrieved 2023-10-29
  9. "2021 AAAS Fellows approved by the AAAS Council", Science , 375 (6579): 393–397, January 2022, doi:10.1126/science.ada0325
  10. "Fellows nominated in 2023 by the Forum on Physics and Society", APS Fellows archive, American Physical Society, retrieved 2023-10-29